Kantar's Profiles Blog

The recent compulsory online census in Australia stirred a considerable amount of controversy, and for seemingly good reason. Ahead of census day, concern was raised by many Australian residents at being told they must share information, but when it was then virtually impossible to complete on the night (the handful of those who managed to submit it notwithstanding), many were up in arms.

Recently, at one of her concerts, Adele called out a fan for having their phone in front of their face for the entire show. She told the fan to be 'in the moment' and enjoy the concert. While I haven’t been lucky enough to score a ticket to an Adele concert, I recently attended the 2016 Market Research in the Mobile World North America conference. You may wonder what the connection between these two things is…however, there is one.

We understand that changing a tracker can be a daunting prospect, but with more than 50% of panellists now registering via tablets and smartphones, it is essential that trackers are designed for today's technology. By excluding or limiting mobile and tablet responders, you could be missing out on the full scope of your target audience and their valuable insights. Here are simple, but game changing tactics that we recommend when reviewing your tracker.

Marketing research companies are experiencing low response rates and low engagement rates, so the industry is continuing to turn to technology to try to increase both. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of adults in the U.S. own a smartphone of some kind, and 46% say their smartphone is, “something they couldn’t live without.” Younger generations coming of age have never known a world without incredibly intelligent mobile devices. With the inevitable and exponential growth of technology, more streamlined mobile devices and the rise of the ‘always on’ consumer, these numbers will continue to grow dramatically.

The role of qualitative research has traditionally been to create and foster the discussion about your consumers’ needs and desires. Quantitative research has been viewed as a tool for testing the statistical relevance of these ideas.

Generally speaking, quantitative research tends to consists of nationally representative samples of respondents evaluating a concept in a survey of closed metrics; however, it doesn’t have to be this way. At its core, the online research platform is simply a means of mass communication -- that communication is not limited to a box ticking exercise.

Research has consistently shown that all panels are not the same. Recruitment sources and management practices vary, and this can cause differences among panels. Beyond panels, there are other sources of online survey respondents, such as river, dynamic, and social media sources – and these can produce data that is different from each other, as well as different from panels. Given the wide variety of sample sources, and their benefits and drawbacks in cost and quality, researchers often struggle with the question, “How can I blend in other sources without impacting my data?”

Over recent years technology has changed what the marketing research industry is as well as what it does.  Because of this, agile research has become increasingly popular for researchers and clients who need on-demand data and broader insights. With the onset of technology and data analytics companies, we have found opportunities to couple third party data with panel survey results. Clients began asking us to make it easier to combine survey responses with other types of data to better understand their targets. Given we have more than 200 profile attributes stored for sampling and or appending, clients were eager for us to add second and third party marketing data that provided broader perspective. This has also allowed clients to shorten surveys and make them more engaging. The results have provided our clients deeper insights and better data quality.

Many clients include quality checks in surveys to make sure respondents are engaged and are answering honestly. However, many of these checks identify false positives, which often mean valid, engaged respondents are thrown out of the sample. How can we reduce false positives? 

In any context there are many questions with factual answers which are difficult to answer: “have you considered an affair?,” “how many vegetables do you eat?,” “how often do you go to the gym?” and “have you lied to your boss?” to name just a few.

When it comes to a question like “how much do you drink” it can be hard enough to be honest with ourselves let alone a researcher! Fortunately the anonymity and context of online research puts it in a unique position to secure honest answers to sensitive questions; however, this is no easy feat. When we ask a question there are many hurdles we must overcome to reach an honest answer.

Real time insights and predictive analytics build better strategies and better business performance. As we re-write the rules of marketing research, data has become the digital fuel to deliver genuine insights. However, as industry stakeholders, we must capture data that is insightful, not invasive.

This year’s CASRO Digital Conference concentrated on the collective knowledge of research in the digital space with a focus on three key areas: implementing Mobile First, focusing on the panelist experience and the emerging importance of video.